Replication Package for "Fiscal Consolidation: Lessons for the U.S."

This replication package reproduces **Figure 1** from the paper “Fiscal Consolidation: Lessons for the U.S.” by William G. Gale, Ian Berlin, Samuel Thorpe, 2025.  
It contains all data and code necessary to clean the dataset from Alesina et al. (see citation below) and generate the figure.


Last updated August 15, 2025
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## Contents

replication_package/
├── process/                     # Data processing step
│   ├── process_data.R            # R script to clean and prepare data
│   ├── alesina.cleaned.csv 	    # Output from `process_data.R` and input for `generate_figure.do`.   
│   ├── data/
│   │   ├── NewComponents1978-2014_final.xlsx   # Raw data from Alesina et al.
│   │   └── us-2014-2023.csv                   # U.S.-specific supplemental data
├── create_figure/                # Figure generation step
│   └── generate_figure.do        # Stata script to produce Figure 1
└── README.txt                     # This file

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## Data

The replication package includes two data files, both located in `process/data/`

1. **NewComponents1978-2014_final.xlsx** — dataset from Alesina, Alberto, Carlo A. Favero, and Francesco Giavazzi. 2019. "Austerity: When It Works and When It Doesn’t."

Available at: https://igier.unibocconi.eu/research/datasets/fiscal-adjustment-plans/dataset (see dataset **#5**, DATABASE.XLSX).

2. **us-2014-2023.csv** — supplemental dataset with U.S.-specific information for 2014–2023. OECD Economic Outlook 117, OECD Data Explorer (2025).

Selected download for U.S. data, 2014-2023, for primary and unified deficit, total outlays, total receipts, all as a share of GDP
Available at: https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?bp=true&snb=3&vw=tb&df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_EO%40DF_EO&df[ag]=OECD.ECO.MAD&dq=USA.YRGTQ%2BNLGQ%2BNLGXQ%2BYPGTQ.A&to[TIME_PERIOD]=false&pd=2014%2C2023

Please cite the original datasets if used.

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## Software Requirements

### R
- Version: 4.3.2 (2023-10-31 ucrt)
- Packages:
  - tidyverse 2.0.0
  - readxl 1.4.5

### Stata
- Version: 18

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## Replication Instructions

1. Data Processing (R)  
   - Open `process/process_data.R` in R.  
   - Ensure the paths to `process/data/NewComponents1978-2014_final.xlsx` and `process/data/us-2014-2023.csv` are correct.  
   - Run the script.  
   - Output: `alesina_cleaned.csv` (saved in `process/` by default).

2. Figure Creation (Stata)  
   - Open `create_figure/generate_figure.do` in Stata.  
   - Ensure the path to `alesina_cleaned.csv` (created in Step 1) is correct.  
   - Run the do-file.  
   - Output: `scatter_condensed` (corresponds to Figure 1 in the paper).
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## Expected Output

Successful replication produces:
- alesina_cleaned.csv — cleaned dataset with appended U.S. averages for 2015-2019 and 2020-2023 periods.
- scatter_condensed — figure corresponding to **Figure 1** in the paper.

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## Notes

- File paths in the R and Stata scripts may need to be adjusted depending on your directory structure.
- The raw Alesina et al. and OECD data files are provided for convenience, but users may download the most recent version directly from the pages linked above.

